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12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light
By Clide, Section Light Posted on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 06:45:28 PM MST
12 VDC light

I started out with taillight bulbs with the high and low filaments and burning the high was good enough for reading. A 60 watt commercial lightbulb is about the largest 12 volt lightbulb one can buy and it's not bright enough for me now. For better light the only answer I've found is car headlight replacement bulbs (the old complete headlights work ok). A $1 shiny SS frying pan for a reflector and 65 watt filaments over the desk are ok and I've seen Xenon bulbs that are advertised equivalent to 100 watts at WalMart so I'll try them next. Is there anything brighter for 12 VDC?

12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light | 16 comments (16 topical)

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by crashk6 on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 02:16:09 PM MST

WOW, this takes me back to the EARLY days of RE... kind of a nostalgic pioneering spirit... and... a creepy make it all go away feeling! I won't give up my compact fluorescent, LED's, and modern low voltage electronics for anything! We have made some definite improvements since the days of headlights 12 volt car appliances and home brew bailing wire resistors! Granted some things still have there place, but headlights are energy hungry little buggers just like any incandescent bulb.

--
crashK6

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by crashk6 on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 02:31:53 PM MST

Good heavens, I forgot to tell you where to get nice bright 12 volt CFs! Go to http://www.naturallighting.com

Contact them via phone, they can put a 12 Volt ballast on most any of their CF bulbs... Their 13 watt is roughly equal to a standard 60 watt bulb. They make up to a 105 watt CF, I don't recall the lumen equivalency to is incandescent counter part but I have used 105 Watt fluorescent as yard lights. So that gives you a good lead.

Now keep in mind our hosts provide 13 watt CFs in 12 volt as well... although you did say you needed more light than an equivalent 60 watt incandescent can offer..
--
crashK6

[ Parent ]

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by hiker on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 08:48:13 PM MST

what about a 250watt 13volt landing light[i use it for testing my alts]
or a 28 volt 1000 watt landing light--that should light up your life..
just might take the spark out of it to! ;}........
WILD IN ALASKA
[ Parent ]

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by crashk6 on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 10:22:24 PM MST

CACKLE

You just may be on to somthing ;~)

--
crashK6

[ Parent ]

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by ruddycrazy on Tue Sep 27, 2005 at 05:19:37 PM MST

Hiya, Why don't you try the 1 watt luxeon star led's, or even the 3 watt ones. They run only only 3.6 volts and the 1 watt runs @ 350mA where the 3 watt runs @ 850mA. You can buy constant current electronic kits to run them and just make sure you put them on a heatsink to dissapate the heat. All in all these led's are blinding to look into but for their size and current output they should be in every RE's home or farm. I'm playing around with a 3 watt version and I reckon it would make a beaut spotlight for shooting. Then again with 5mm led's now outputting 20,000mcd and getting bigger running a few of them would be very economical as they only draw 20 mA each. If your interested I can put up a few basic circuits showing how to connect them.

Cheers Ruddy Crazy

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by richhagen on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 12:41:20 PM MST

If you're not worried about efficiency, then I guess the headlights are ok. Compact Flourescents from our hosts are available at WWW.Wondermagnet.com. A few of those in parallel would, I believe, be more efficient in terms of lumens per watt than the car lamps, or the Luxeon's. Another option are the 12V 40 watt flourescent ballasts. Commercial versions are available, as well as several homebrew designs brought up on this discussion board. Rich
'A Joule saved is a Joule made'

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 02:22:42 PM MST

I second this suggestion.

Car electric applications don't have to be efficient because there's SO much energy available when the engine is running. What they have to be is inexpensive to manufacture, sturdy, and light weight.

Rule of thumb: It takes four times as much power to make a given amount of light with an incandescent than with a fluorescent.

LEDs may beat fluorescents eventually. Right now they're almost as hungry as incandescents.

[ Parent ]

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by Dreadstar on Wed Sep 28, 2005 at 08:03:38 PM MST

Pick up a 15" CFL it lights up the entire room and is adequate for reading for 18 watts 12vdc they have them here. www.nationalsolarsupply.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=584

but there are of course other alternatives. car headlights are not the answer.

Home depot sells 110 volt mr16 bulb track light fixtures that can be modified to use 12 vdc mr16 bulbs if you like the really bright white light that hologens put out.

the mr16 bulbs come from 10 watts up to 65 watts that i have seen.
Take out the (at) and substitute @ for replies via email

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by 4tap on Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 11:56:19 PM MST

Jeez, I thought i was the only one that used headlights for lighting. about 10 years ago when i got divorced i was living in a campground. I put together one of those lawnmower engine- car alternator combos to charge 4 batteries in parallel to run a light and and a Homebrew inverter from an ARRL handbook. I used that system for a while then managed to get a house in the country. Didn't have the cash for a power deposit so i kept the battery charger and inverter for a couple of years. I rigged a solar water heater for hot water. I got a solar panel surplus from the state, used it to charge the batts in good wheather, Buy the time i remarried i was living well off grid. New wife didn't like it so we moved ( bought a new house ) I still have the old one for a shop. Now the engine runs off a methane digester with enough left over to run an old car on the gas. My tractor is powered by producer gas from scrap wood. Buy the way i just found the site and list today. It's great. I would like to have a small windmill. I saw the ones on the home page. Fantastic Keith.

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by elvin1949 on Fri Sep 30, 2005 at 10:05:15 AM MST

Keith
How about a diary entry about your producer gas,
and methane gas production and storage and usage.
Several of us would be very interested in how you do it.
later
Elvin

[ Parent ]

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by 4tap on Sat Oct 01, 2005 at 04:23:17 PM MST

Diary? some new to read. Cool. When i get a respectable camera i'll upload some shots. I'll start keeping a log of the work site. Keith

[ Parent ]

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by ghurd on Wed Oct 05, 2005 at 01:47:04 AM MST

Holly methane! Don't get a respectable camera.
Get a 'crappy' camera.
(Couldn't 'pass' that up)
The bad photos are less res so they upload / download easier.
Ghurd.info
[ Parent ]

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by DBGenerator on Tue Oct 04, 2005 at 07:09:05 PM MST

I looked through those web sites and couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. I'll have to look again.
I bought my son an Eveready LED flashlight a while ago. It uses 4 AA Batries. It also has a fluorescent light. He had it on all night in his tent for like 3 or 4 nights before the batteries ran out. That's the kind of light I was looking for.
I'm kind of experimenting with my camper for solar and wind power.

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by Parameter on Sat Oct 08, 2005 at 07:07:52 PM MST

I might look into 12v halogen lamps. Those come in 25 and 50w and much more, but the small ones are regularly used in kitchens and rail lamps. The lamps may be found in all good hardware store. They may be labelled 12 or not. It may really matter or not. You'll have to make some educated guesses there. Check some halogen lamp standards sites.

I have a lamp with a transfo at the base. I think it puts out 24v. I heard of some guy who took 100watts 220v lamps and run them at 120v for 50w... maybe that would make a 50w around 25 watts at 12v.... well, place for experiment.

I just bring this as halogen lights are really clean and better to read than fluorescents... tough on efficiency, the CFL win high-hand over the other stuff... even LEDs.

Have good experiments. You may just find an old halo lamp in the garbage and check the voltage. If it has a heavy base, it should have a transfo and lower than 120v bulb. If voltage is 12v or 24v, then identify lightbulb and start from there.

good luck

Para

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by dinges on Mon Oct 24, 2005 at 08:15:45 PM MST

Hi,

One use that car headlights may be good for is as diversion load, though I'd prefer to use water heating elements as diversion load.

I regularly use car headlights (12V/55W (5amp)) for testing power-supplies and smaller batteries (e.g. 7Ah). 2 weeks ago I converted an old PC powersupply from 12V to 13.8V (not very easy! involved disconnecting the +5V, re-wiring the stabilization loop (to +12V instead of +5), changing overvoltage protection, etc). Anyway, the PSU should be able to put out 13.8V at 10 amp. Just grab an old headlight (with the dimlight burned out), connect it, 5 amps! Connect another one, 10 amps! etc. One problem: it's difficult to read your DMM with all that blinding light X-)

So, my opinion, they're fine for PSU dummyloads and automobiles. For alternative energy, perhaps as diversion load, but not as main lighting, unless you've got more power than you can use (yeah, right...)

Grtz,

Peter

Re: 12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light (3.00 / 0) (#16)
by traviss76 on Wed Nov 16, 2005 at 03:41:19 PM MST

I was pulling my hair out around here trying to figure out how to lower our electric bill it was 600.00. So in searching for a way to convert to 12volt lights that was my mom's idea I went through a couple of adapters but they did not have the amp output for the 9004, 1157 automotive lights I was using so I looked around for anything that outputed 10 amps or more at 12volts and what did I find? Well since you asked I'll tell you I found a COMPUTER POWER SUPPLY that oddly enough outputed +12v, -12v, +5v, -5v at varying amperage. But the one I needed was +12v at 10amps.
I opened the unit and trimmed all excess wires and left the ground and the +12v and wired it to my lights and they worked and are still working. I dropped the wattage from 400watts on my lighting to 85 watts with very little noticeability in candlepower. I think we have another power supply in the shed on a busted computer so I will take it and use it for our internal lighting to replace the flourescent lamps and drop the watt draw from 200 watts to 60watts. And we all know that that little spinning meter runs at watts per hours. I figure if we get all 12volts appliances I'll just run them off my computers power supply.

I had to search for used parts I had here because we are broke. But a new computer power supply is like @10.00. Just get the 10amp output version at +12volts.

12 VDC car headlight bulbs for light | 16 comments (16 topical)

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